An Outline of The History of Western Music Grout ... - The Reel Score

2: the Bourbon family failed to gain support of the growing and powerful middle
class and in 1830, Louis-Philippe of the Orléans line on the throne as a
constitutional monarch in the bloodless "July Revolution"
b) the government continued to subsidize opera and concerts with the opera theater
leased to a businessman Louis Véron who found wealthy sponsors - anyone
could purchase tickets but the boxes rented at high prices
2. But with the change in political control and the comparative decline in royal
patronage change came to the French opera
3. New forms
a) Gasparo Spontini (1774-1851) united the heroic character typical of the late Gluck
operas with the dramatic tension of the then popular rescue plot - resulted in a
new type of serious opera clothing the whole in a grand display of solo, choral,
and orchestral magnificence
b) Grand Opera
1: with the continued decline of royal patronage, this was designed to appeal to
the relatively uncultured audiences who thronged the opera theaters looking for
excitement and entertainment
2: leaders of this school were the librettist Eugène Scribe (1791-1861), the
composer Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864), and the director of the Paris Opera
Theater Vèron
3: the French ideal of grand opera stayed alive to some extent throughout the 19th
century, influencing the work of Verdi and Wagner
4: it also still survives in 20th century works such as Darius Milhaud's Christophe
Colomb, Samuel Barber's Antony & Cleopatra, and John Corigliano's The
Ghosts of Versailles
5: Composers around 1830 most productive in the Grand Opera genre
i- Francois Auber (1782-1871)
ii- Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
iii- Jacques Fromental Halévy (1799-1862)
c) Opéra Comique
1: pursued its course in France side by side with Grand Opera
i- used a spoken dialogue instead of the recitative of Grand opera
ii- less pretentious than Grand Opera, requiring fewer singers and players and
was written in a simpler musical idiom
iii- the plots - as a rule - presented straightforward comedy (comic type) or
semi-serious drama (romantic type) instead of the historical pageantry of
Grand Opera
2: Composers of Opéra Comique
i- Francois Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834)
ii- Ferdinand Hérold (1791-1833)
iii- Daniel Francois Esprit Auber (1782-1871)
d) Opéra bouffe
1: another new genre - not to be confused with the 18th century Italian opera buffa
- emphasised the smart, witty, and satirical elements of comic opera